1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a camera containing a flash unit therein, and more particularly to a camera provided with a device for automatically setting the flash unit to a photography preparing condition when an object to be photographed is of low brightness.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, in a camera of such type, the flash unit is designed to be supplied with power from a power source common to an exposure control device and/or an automatic focusing device. Also, the operation of causing the flash unit to project outwardly of the camera body by the electromagnetic force of an electromagnet supplied with power in response to the detection of the low brightness of the object to be photographed by a metering circuit (auto pop-up) is effected and the operation of the flash unit is started in response to the auto pop-up operation. However, in the device of this type, there has been no control of the auto pop-up operation and therefore, the flash unit has sometimes been automatically popped up during automatic focusing operation or during automatic exposure control operation. Thus, under the influence of the mechanical noise resulting from the auto pop-up and the electrical noise resulting from the flashlight emission preparing operation (for example, the boosting operation by a DC/DC converter) operatively associated with the auto pop-up, automatic focusing operation and automatic exposure control operation have become unstable.
In this regard, Japanese Laid-open patent application No. 24924/1982 discloses the technique of inhibiting the auto pop-up and subsequent flashlight emission preparing operation during automatic focusing operation or automatic exposure control operation. In this prior technique, it is preferable to give the exposure control operation or the automatic focusing operation a preference over the flashlight emission preparing operation in order to render the inhibition of the auto pop-up further reliable even when the object brightness has become low as soon as the operation of the exposure control device or the automatic focusing device is started.